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“Jack of all Trades and Master of None,” is this a True Reflection of Today’s British Police

Received: 29 January 2014     Published: 10 March 2014
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Abstract

The purpose of present study is to explore the British policing methods and their effectiveness. Generally, four key goals of their policing include preventing crime and disorder, pursuing and bringing to justice those who break the law, keeping the peace, and helping the public. When considering these aims carefully, it leads to a subsequent question: If the majority of regular police officers are not directly fighting crime, what are the reasons for it and what are they actually doing? This is the foundations for the “Jack of all trades” argument of this paper, which gives rise to the two competing paradigms. One is that the role of the police should involve much more than simply apprehending criminals. Furthermore, the other paradigm suggests that the police are simply spending too much time on the activities that are not part of their main duties. These polarised viewpoints need to be taken into account before any meaningful conclusions can be drawn. This paper argues that the answer can be found in the culture of policing by examining the goals that the British police forces are currently attempting to achieve. It is clear that as the police have finite resources, they have to make choices about how to deploy them. This requires reconsidering their priorities and placing more emphases on some activities more than others.

Published in Psychology and Behavioral Sciences (Volume 3, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.pbs.20140302.11
Page(s) 41-45
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2014. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

British Police, Policing Methods, Crime and Disorder, Crime Prevention

References
[1] R. Reiner, "The Politics of the Police", Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
[2] R. Mawby, "Core Policing: the Seductive Myth’, In F. Leishman, B. Loveday and S. Savage (eds), Core Issues In Policing, Essex: Pearson, pp. 107-123, 2000.
[3] D. Bayley, "What Do the Police Do?", In W. Saulsbury, J. Mott and T. Newburn (eds), Themes in Contemporary Policing, Plymouth: Latimer Trend and Co, pp. 15-35, 1996.
[4] R. Mogan and T. Newburn, "The Future of Policing", Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
[5] C. Hornton, "Good Practice and Evaluating Policing", In R. Morgan and D. Smith (eds), Coming to Terms with Policing, London: Routledge, pp. 31-48, 1989.
[6] C. Coleman and C. Norris "Policing and the Police: Key Issues in Criminal Justice", In Y. Jewkes and G. Letherby (eds), Criminology: A Reader, London: Sage, pp. 287-300, 2000.
[7] D. Gilling, "Policing, Crime Prevention and Partnerships", In F. Leishman, B. Loveday and S. Savage (eds), Core Issues in Policing, Essex: Pearson, pp. 124-139, 2000.
[8] I. Waters, "Quality and Performance Monitoring", In F. Leishman, B. Loveday and S. Savage (eds), Core Issues in Policing, Essex: Pearson, pp. 264-287, 2000.
[9] B. Bowling and J. Foster, "Policing and the Police", In M. Maguire, R. Morgan and R. Reiner (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Criminology, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 980-1033, 2002.
[10] M. Punch and T. Naylor, "The Police: A Secret Social Service", New Society, vol. 24, pp. 38-49, 1973.
[11] N. Fielding, "Enforcement, Service and Community Models of Policing", In W. Saulsbury, J. Mott and T. Newburn (eds), Themes in Contemporary Policing, Plymouth: Latimer Trend and Co, pp. 42-59, 1996.
[12] M. Maguire "Criminal Investigation and Crime Control", In T. Newburn (ed), Handbook of Policing, Devon: Willan Publishing, pp. 363-393, 2003.
[13] R. Reiner, "Police: Organisation and Accountability", In M. Mcconville and G. Wilson (eds), The Handbook of the Criminal Justice Process, Oxford: Oxford University Press, , pp. 997-1050, 2002.
[14] N. Tilley, "Community Policing, Problem-Orientated Policing and Intelligence-Led Policing", In T. Newburn (ed), Handbook of Policing, Willan: Devon, pp. 311-339, 2003.
[15] S. Sadd and R. Grind, "Innovative Neighbourhood Oriented Policing: An Evaluation of Community Policing Plans in Eight Cities", In D. Rosenbaum (ed), The Challenge of Community Policing, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 21-52, 1994.
[16] S. Jones and E. Silverman, "What Price Efficiency? Circular Arguments. Financial Constraints on the Police in Britain", Policing, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 31-48, 1984.
[17] P. Neyroud and A. Beckley, "Policing, Ethics and Human Right", Willan: Devon, 2001.
[18] M. Matass and T. Newburn, "Policing and Terrorism", In T. Newburn (ed), Handbook of Policing, Devon: Willan Publishing, pp. 467-500, 2003.
[19] R. Mawby and A. Wright, "The Police Organisation’, In T. Newburn, T. (ed), Handbook of Policing, Devon: Willan Publishing, pp. 169-195, 2003.
[20] T. Newburn, "Policing since 1945", In T. Newburn (ed), Handbook of Policing, Devon: Willan Publishing, pp. 90-115, 2003.
[21] M. Levi, "The Organisation of Serious Crimes’, In M. Maguire, R. Morgan and R. Reiner (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Criminology, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 307-327, 2007.
[22] S. Savage, S. Charman and S. Cope, "The Policy-Making Context: Who Shapes Policing Policy?", In F. Leishman, B. Loveday and S. Savage (eds), Core Issues in Policing, Essex; Pearson, pp. 30-51, 2000.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Kwan Choi, Ju-Lak Lee, Hyungoo Shin. (2014). “Jack of all Trades and Master of None,” is this a True Reflection of Today’s British Police. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, 3(2), 41-45. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20140302.11

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    ACS Style

    Kwan Choi; Ju-Lak Lee; Hyungoo Shin. “Jack of all Trades and Master of None,” is this a True Reflection of Today’s British Police. Psychol. Behav. Sci. 2014, 3(2), 41-45. doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20140302.11

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    AMA Style

    Kwan Choi, Ju-Lak Lee, Hyungoo Shin. “Jack of all Trades and Master of None,” is this a True Reflection of Today’s British Police. Psychol Behav Sci. 2014;3(2):41-45. doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20140302.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.pbs.20140302.11,
      author = {Kwan Choi and Ju-Lak Lee and Hyungoo Shin},
      title = {“Jack of all Trades and Master of None,” is this a True Reflection of Today’s British Police},
      journal = {Psychology and Behavioral Sciences},
      volume = {3},
      number = {2},
      pages = {41-45},
      doi = {10.11648/j.pbs.20140302.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20140302.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.pbs.20140302.11},
      abstract = {The purpose of present study is to explore the British policing methods and their effectiveness. Generally, four key goals of their policing include preventing crime and disorder, pursuing and bringing to justice those who break the law, keeping the peace, and helping the public. When considering these aims carefully, it leads to a subsequent question: If the majority of regular police officers are not directly fighting crime, what are the reasons for it and what are they actually doing? This is the foundations for the “Jack of all trades” argument of this paper, which gives rise to the two competing paradigms. One is that the role of the police should involve much more than simply apprehending criminals. Furthermore, the other paradigm suggests that the police are simply spending too much time on the activities that are not part of their main duties. These polarised viewpoints need to be taken into account before any meaningful conclusions can be drawn. This paper argues that the answer can be found in the culture of policing by examining the goals that the British police forces are currently attempting to achieve. It is clear that as the police have finite resources, they have to make choices about how to deploy them. This requires reconsidering their priorities and placing more emphases on some activities more than others.},
     year = {2014}
    }
    

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    AB  - The purpose of present study is to explore the British policing methods and their effectiveness. Generally, four key goals of their policing include preventing crime and disorder, pursuing and bringing to justice those who break the law, keeping the peace, and helping the public. When considering these aims carefully, it leads to a subsequent question: If the majority of regular police officers are not directly fighting crime, what are the reasons for it and what are they actually doing? This is the foundations for the “Jack of all trades” argument of this paper, which gives rise to the two competing paradigms. One is that the role of the police should involve much more than simply apprehending criminals. Furthermore, the other paradigm suggests that the police are simply spending too much time on the activities that are not part of their main duties. These polarised viewpoints need to be taken into account before any meaningful conclusions can be drawn. This paper argues that the answer can be found in the culture of policing by examining the goals that the British police forces are currently attempting to achieve. It is clear that as the police have finite resources, they have to make choices about how to deploy them. This requires reconsidering their priorities and placing more emphases on some activities more than others.
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Author Information
  • Dept. of Police Administration, Hansei University, Gunpo, Korea

  • Dept. of Security Management, Kyonggi University, Suwon, Korea

  • Dept. of Security Management, Kyonggi University, Suwon, Korea

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